Currently, the drive system of a wheeled machine, for example a lawnmower, includes a transmission and wheels driven by a drive gear or pinion on the output shaft of the transmission. In order to minimize friction when the user pushes the lawnmower forward, simple ratchet mechanisms have been used inside the pinion mounted on the transmission output shaft. This allows for one-way driving of the wheels by the transmission and low friction in the forward direction. However, if the user wants to pull the lawnmower backwards, the ratchets do not disengage from the transmission output shaft. This causes high roll-back friction that the user must overcome to move the lawnmower backwards. In many cases, the pullback load is high enough to cause customers to complain about high load.
It is known to use a combination of mechanisms to allow freewheeling when the transmission is not driving the system, and many of these designs are contained within the transmission itself. The internal-to-transmission style solves the freewheeling problem by disengaging the output shafts from the input shaft of the transmission, thus reducing the overall friction the user must overcome to move the lawnmower. However, in this construction, the output shafts of the transmission are independent from each other. This separation necessitates additional support for the shafts in the transmission housing. The shafts must be supported because of the joint they have between the left and right output shafts. It is also known to use a freewheeling ratchet system built into the wheel pinion mounted on the transmission output shaft. However, this design is susceptible to dust intrusion because of tight tolerances of the mating parts.